I have finally got the budget to build my new PC I've been aiming for, for over a year and things have moved on alot. I have a structure for what I want but am having a great deal of trouble over the graphics card. Budget: Approx £1600 - £1700 Main uses of intended build: PC Gaming Parts required: CPU: Intel Core i7 930 Mainboard: Asus P6X58D-E RAM: 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair XMS3, DDR3 PC3-12800 PSU: 850W Enermax Revolution85+ PSU Case: Silverstone Fortress FT02R-WRI Optical Drive: LG CH10LS20.AUAR Soundcard: Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional New Version HDD: 1TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 Graphics Card: ? Monitor resolution: 1920 x 1080 22" Monitor LG W2261VP Storage requirements: Just Games Will you be overclocking: no Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): No Extra information about desired system: I'm opting to build myself with air cooling as my preferred method. The PSU is prob more than I need but I've always wanted an Enermax and it will be used as the basis for future systems as well. My main problem is to do with graphics. I've read every review going in Custompc, Hex etc etc and compared endless models but am thoroughly stuck on the best choice and need some advice. My aim to is game with max setting on everything at 1920 x 1080 full AA and AF everything maxed. GTX480 Noisy: though think that may get mitigated a bit by the casing's sound dampening. Hot: Heat could be a real issue with air cooling and the fact where I live does warm up considerably. Power Draw: Don't really want to see my electricity bill spike too much HD5870 Matrix Really nice card and quiet but will it meet my gaming requirements to max everything and how future proof would this be with 6000 series cards coming late quarter and inbcreasingly heavy tessalation in games? FPS wise it also seems to underperform to the GTX but would it actually make a dif? HD5970 Assuming I could even find one of these the performance seems blistering and highly desirable, it looks like it is pretty future proof and capable of meeting all my requirements but is it far too much? Would really appreciate any advice on the build and graphics problem.
I would personally look at the 5870. It is more than enough for now, and you can always opt for a second one in crossfire when the time comes to take another jump. It is relatively cool and power efficient (well relative to the 480). It IS a little on the low side for tessellation - but again, adding a second card would help once that matters.
+1 on this ^ (arvo Roo, how's things?). The 5870 is good bang for buck and won't melt your PSU or case. It will run everything you throw at it at that resolution and has an upgrade path via crossfire should you want more. The Sapphire Vapor-X models have a good reputation for low noise and cool running but you will pay a £50+ premium for them. I am not sure you would notice any difference between a GTX480 and a 5870, we are talking small FPS aounts here aren't we? The Matrix is overpriced for what it is, not worth the premium imho.
Make that 3 votes! 5870 is the way to go, read the last 100 issues of Cutom pc and you will see the average OC or OCXXXXXX graphics card is normaly only worth an extra 1 or 2 fps at high res and detail. Im my opion its only ever worth spending time and money on overclocking a CPU, just buy the grahics card with the best fan and warranty at the standard speed.
I have read quite a few comments regards the instability of the 5870's catalyst driver including ctd's and texture de syncs. Anyone had any experience of that especially in bfbc2? Also would it be better to opt for a 2gb vapor x over a 1gb. Must say I've not seen any in stock at scan for a while. Last thing is how does the 5870 handle AA at high level in games compared to the gtx 480 and does it provide equally responsive gameplay and framerates? Cheers for replies btw guys.
The 480 GTX is faster. Thats without question. But being as your only air cooling, do you want 95C load temps, huge power draw and extremely noisy cooler?
Yeah, will be disrupted next week with major building works at home and work will kick off mad busy again so I'm getting my quota in now. Would the difference be noticable gaming or are we talking bench faster?
I haven't had any driver issues at all (including during BC2). As for the 2GB/1GB discussion, I ended up just getting the 1GB Vapor X because the 2 was never in stock. So far I can play everything at full settings with 2 monitors; including Crysis with 8x AA. The 5870 can take pretty much anything current games can throw at it when you're only using 1 monitor.
The 5870 plays just about everything smoothly on high settings on this resolution. I have two 5870's, but rarely enable crossfire (playing most things on a single card). There's a couple of exceptions - metro 2033 for instance - that is a real hog and can apply a ton of tesselation. I have used both cards for that. I've tried to see the difference with tesselation on and off however, and it's really hard to pick. Without tesselation enabled it's 50fps+.
This is my gaming rig, * Killing-Spree www.uber-ware.co.uk * MSI X58 Big Bang XPower * Intel i7 930 2.80GHz * 2x Uberware SLi Nvidia Geforce GTX 460 768MB * OCZ Gold 6GB (3x2gb) PC3-16000 2000MHz * WD Caviar Black 1TB * LightScribe DVD+-RW 22x * Coolermaster Cosmos RC-1000 * Coolermaster Pro 1000W PSU * Microsoft Windows 7 64 HP * 3 Year Full Warranty * For £1615 with free delivery Has worked great for Starcraft 2 and I can player Modern Warfare on Max Settings now
i own the 5870s in crossfire and there is some driver issues that you need to be aware of especially on the newer games that are released, Splinter cell conviction + battlefield bc 2 has some issues in CF. Aion was bugged to hell on ATI hardware on release and Sabotour still doesnt work for everybody 480 is faster and has the better drivers problem is its a hot card give or take case and noisy card under heavy load but so are 5870s in crossfire they become noisy under load as well and thats vapor x edition cards any graphics card once the fan speeds hit 80% + will be loud. my avr temps for 5870 crossfire are around 78c under load in games about 85c in furmark, the 480 isnt that hotter in that regard and i dout its that much louder ( case is Cooler Master ATCS 840 ) I know the single card only does about 60c under load on a 40% fan speed for the 5870 vapor x and its near silent in use. if money is no object and you have a decent case the 480 can be sli for crazy performance ( and are a good case modder ) 5970 is too buggy to ever get my recomendation theres about a 15 page forum post under hardware in bit tech forums that go over some of the bugs. ATI has always had some driver issues nvidia has always had hot cards but stable drivers, I dont know anyone with a nvidia card that has had driver crashes you could also sli 460s for the same money
i have several times with win 7 32bit and 8 series card and 9 series cards. windows just ejects the nivida driver and restarts it. i woundnt say ATI have bad driver problems as ive been running my 4870 1GB around a year now and have never had any display issues or graphic problems. 5970 is a different kettle of fish though and thats crossfire drive issue rather than the general drivers sicne a 5970 is abasicvally a single PCB crossfire solution. oo +1 for a 5870 if your gaming at 1920x1080 as it will eat anything at this res paying a lot more for better FPS when you wont notice it is silly and by the time the card isnt enough anymore better cards will be out. i doubt the 480 will last much longer but its hard to say depends where the game engines get steered.
Sadly after speaking to Scan today it seems the highly recommended Vapor X is out of stock with all its suppliers and there doesn't seem a likelihood of it returning as the advisor indicated they were ramping up for production of the 6000 series iteration. Any other recommendations for a HD 5870 that can perform on a par with a Vapor X?
Thanks for all the advice. I've made a number of changes based on further reading and advice here. Going to hold out hope that I can place an order for the 2gb vapor x with scan and maybe I will beable to get one should stock ever arrive! Would appreciate any final advice on my revised build. CPU: i7 930 Mainboard: Asus P6x58d-e RAM: 6gb Corsair XMS3 PC3-12800 Heatsink: Prolimatech Megahalems with 120mm Noctua NF-P12 fan PSU: 850w Enermax rev 85+ Storage: 128gb crucial C300 SSD with highpoint rocketraid 620 hdd controller + 1tb Samsung F3 GPU: 2gb sapphire hd 5870 vapor x Soundcard: Creative Labs Fatal1ty pro Case: Silverstone FT02R WRI With os and anti virus software + otical drive and thermal compound it comes in at £1920.80. That also includes scan build insurance.
Thats alot of money to be spending right now. If you spend it on current tech you'll be sorry in a few months. Bulldozer/Sandybridge is not far off now, plus ATI 6xxx series soon aswell. Theres no way i'd spend that kind of money on a PC now. I know its hard to wait for new tech, but thats what i would do personally. Honestly mate think about what i've said here, 2 grand on EOL tech.
There is no need for the 2GB version as it will provide no benefit at all since your gaming @ 1920x1080 1GB will give the same performance at a cheaper price
